PREVENT Myth and Reality Prevent seeks to intervene in the radicalisation process

- To stop people being radicalised, we need to understand the risk factors to know how and where to intervene

  - No single profile...
    - Majority **male**, small no. of females
    - Some in **steady relationships**
    - Ethnically diverse
    - Majority **British citizens**, half UK born
    - **Range of education levels**
    - Few have **deep knowledge of faith**
    - Disproportionately high no. **converts**.
    - Some, but not all, previously involved in **criminal activity**
    - Vulnerabilities include **mental health**

Foreign policy: “I am not saying these issues [recent wars] aren’t important. We could deal with all these issues and some people would still be drawn to Islamist extremism” Prevent - A triangle of activity

1. Tackling Influences

   - Civil Society Organisations

2. Early Intervention

   - Prevent Network

3. Rehabilitation

   - NOMS and HO De-radicalisation Programme

Evening Standard London schoolboy, 9, stood up in class and declared allegiance to IS after watching beheading videos online

CHLOE CHAPLAIN | Tuesday 14 February 2017 14:34 Evolution of threat required more partners to play a role in safeguarding people from terrorism

Patchy and inconsistent delivery across the country

Statutory duty – “due regard to the need to prevent people being drawn into terrorism” (s.26 CTSA 2015)

> Risk assessment >Leadership >Training >Partnership

Embedding safeguarding within sectors

Example: Schools sector – WRAP training, Educate Against Hate website, Toolkits for schools, Workshops on critical thinking

Independent research finds 73% of teachers believe there’s same level/more open discussion in classes

Some controversy around HE/speaker policies. High Court found no interference between duty and FoS Are we having an impact?

• **169 community based projects** delivered in 2016/17. With 44% delivered in schools, aimed at increasing young people’s resilience to terrorist and extremist ideologies.

• Robust action **tackling radicalisation online**. Following referrals from the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU), social media providers have **removed 280,000 pieces of illegal terrorist material** since February 2010.

• **Supporting community-based initiatives** that challenge Daesh’s communications and provide credible counter narratives.

• **More than 150 attempted journeys to Syria/Iraq conflict area disrupted** in 2015. This includes action by the family courts. Courts protected approx. 50 children (from around 20 families) from being taken to the conflict area in 2015.

• Since 2012, **over 1,000 individuals have been provided with support**. The vast majority of the individuals who receive support through Channel leave with no further concerns about their vulnerability to being drawn into terrorism. In 2016-17, **around a third of those who received support through Channel were referred for concerns about far right extremism**. Opposition to Prevent

Local cases

Academic reports and ‘open letters’

The government's anti-radicalisation scheme, Prevent, is instilling "fear, suspicion and censorship" on university campuses, an advocacy group has warned.

The mother was baffled when nursery staff showed her the picture and said it was a 'cooker bomb'.

Local events

Political campaigning

Andy Burnham calls for 'toxic' Prevent strategy to be scrapped

Shadow home secretary says policy is today's equivalent of internment in Northern Ireland.

Sustained social media campaign

#endPREVENT Our proactive communication strategy aims to highlight the positive impact of Prevent, dispel myths, raise understanding of what Prevent looks like in practice; and promote balanced reporting.

Through:

• Showcasing community-led projects, local voices and case studies in mainstream media

• Mobilising influential independent voices to advocate in support of Prevent

• Increased face-to-face dialogue with local communities through roundtables

• Building on the positive impact Ministers have made in promoting Prevent with more Ministerial visibility and support.

• Rebutting negative and inaccurate reporting on Prevent.

• Demonstrating increased transparency through publication of Channel data and giving media more access to elements of Prevent. Is it effective?

Key Outcomes:

- Increased **five-fold** our community engagement events

- An **uplift in positive/balanced news** coverage of Prevent – from 15 positive pieces in June 2016, to 99 in July 2017

- Media training for **53** Prevent Co-ordinators

- Establishing a cohort of **20+** key influencers

- **48** Ministerial interviews in support of Prevent in the last year

- Prevent Co-ordinators have indicated that the communications has led to a positive step-change in the perception of Prevent

- Local staff and civil society partners now feel empowered to speak up in support of Prevent, helped in part by public support by Ministers What support can Home Office Press Office provide?

- Language around Prevent

- Best practice examples

- Media training

- Support with reactive media enquiries

- Access to media opportunities

- Support and guidance for interviews

- Capacity to facilitate proactive media enquiries Examples

If you strip away ideology, the person behind far-right and Islamist extremism is often very similar – Prevent coordinator @WillBaldet

Far-right extremism: 'I'm ashamed of my Nazi tattoos'

Home secretary visits Poplar to start UK tour to stop teens being radicalised

Luton Prevent

A third of people supported online voluntary mentoring programme Channel last year were because of far-right concerns